Political issue-ad bill should be rejected: Other View

Demonstrators protest campaign finance laws.

The last thing Wisconsin needs in its campaign-finance system is less transparency. Yet that would be the effect of a bill just introduced in the state Senate.

The bill, which appears to be on a fast-track schedule to passage, would allow political organizations that produce issue ads to avoid disclosing the names of their donors.

Issue ads are campaign ads in disguise. They don't say you should vote for or against someone, but their timing and message is intended to do the same thing.

According to the Wisconsin State Journal, the bill specifies certain words - such as "elect" or "reject" - that the ads have to avoid to be considered an issue ad instead of a campaign ad. And issue ads wouldn't be under the same disclosure requirements as campaign ads are.

Bill proponents say it merely turns into law what's already part of the state's administrative code. Good-government groups say, despite that, the bill is a step in the wrong direction.

We agree. We need to have more transparency in government - and in campaign financing, in particular.

This bill is just one more chip off the bedrock principle of democracy that voting matters. Its supporters are among those who want to not only make it harder for you to vote, but for your vote to mean less - and the money that funds their campaigns directly and indirectly to mean much, much more.

Those in the state Senate who support campaign finance reform, as much as can be allowed under the U.S. Supreme Court's Citizens United decision, should reject this attempt to subvert democracy even further.